Sound Devices 970 Brings Rackmounted Audio to InfoComm 2014

Sound Devices, specialists in audio and video production equipment, showcases the 970, its first-ever dedicated audio-only rack-mounted solution, which boasts an impressive 64 channels of Dante and MADI, at InfoComm 2014 (Booth C6443). The half-rack, 2U device simplifies any application requiring high-quality, high-track-count audio recording, including live events such as concerts and sports recording, corporate events, houses of worship (HOW), studio and mobile production, as well as theater and museum presentations.

Sound Devices 970 records 64 channels of monophonic or polyphonic 24-bit WAV files from any of its 144 available inputs. Inputs available include 64 channels of Ethernet-based Dante, 64 channels of optical or coaxial MADI, eight channels of line-level analog and eight channels of AES digital. The 970 is a powerful tool for professionals who require a significant number of audio channels. Any input can be assigned to any track. In addition, 32-track recording at 96 kHz is supported.

The 970 records to any of four attached drives, which include two front-panel drive bays and two rear-panel e-SATA connected drives. Material can be recorded to multiple drives simultaneously or sequentially. This eliminates time-consuming post-record copying and allows for continuous long-form, high-track count recordings.

The Sound Devices 970 features an embedded Web-based control panel for machine transport and setup control over Ethernet-based networks as well as file transfer over the data network with SMB. In mission-critical audio-over-IP AV installations, where hundreds of audio channels are distributed between zones, setting up a redundant network to protect against loss of audio due to network failure provides peace of mind. The ability to have one drive transferring files over Ethernet, while another continues recording, offers significant production time savings. Corporate, HOW, theater and museum presentation videos that are created, edited and rendered remotely can be transferred directly to the venue.

File metadata editing of scene name, take name, notes, track names and reel folders can be done during, before and after recording across all drives. In addition to RS-422 and GPIO control, the unit also allows for format conversion between analog, AES digital, MADI and Dante, acting as a bridge and routing matrix between these types of audio I/O.

Sound Devices 970 is designed with a large five-inch screen for metering of up to 64 tracks and for fast and intuitive menu control. It also features the Sound Devices proprietary PowerSafe technology. PowerSafe circuitry has a built-in 10-second power reserve. In the event of power loss, the unit continues to operate for up to 10 seconds, then stops any file operation and shuts down. This ensures that a complete power loss has no effect on the recording. In addition, the 970 features FileSafe, which automatically detects and repairs corrupted file headers when drives are mounted. This occurs when a drive is inadvertently removed during recording, with the 970, simply reinsert the drive and it automatically repairs its files.

With its built-in, rock-steady Ambient Recording Lockit time-code technology, the 970 is well-suited to operate as a master clock. It can also slave or be jammed to any other time-code source. All common production time-code rates and modes are supported. The 970 also supports external synchronization from word clock, MADI or AES. To simplify the connection of multiple digital inputs, SRCs are available for all MADI, Dante or AES inputs.

Founded in 1998, the company designs and manufactures both brands from their Reedsburg, Wisconsin headquarters with additional offices in Madison, WI and Highland Park, IL. For more information, visit the Sound Devices and Video Devices websites, www.sounddevices.com; www.videodevices.com.